UNIT 6: INTERVIEWINGINTERVIEWING PR

UNIT 6: INTERVIEWING
INTERVIEWING PROCESS
Not all organizations interview potential candidates the same way. At Southwest Airlines, for example, a candidate undergoes a rigorous interview process that can take as long as six weeks. However, most employers interview an applicant two or three times before deciding to make a job offer. Applicants often face a sequence of interviews, each with a different purpose.
Most organizations interview an applicant several times before extending a job offer:
• Screening stage
• Selection stage
• Final stage
First is the preliminary screening stage, which is generally held on campus for new college hires and which helps employers screen out unqualified applicants. Those candidates who best meet the organization's requirements are invited to visit company offices for further evaluation. Interviews at the screening stage are fairly structured, so applicants are often asked roughly the same questions. Many companies use standardized evaluation sheets to "grade" the applicants so that all the candidates will be measured against the same criteria. In some cases, technology has transformed the initial, get-to-know-you interview, allowing employers to screen candidates by phone, video interview, or computer.
Your best approach to an interview at the screening stage is to follow the interviewer's lead. Keep your responses short and to the point. Time is limited, so talking too much can be a big mistake. However, to give the interviewer a way to differentiate you from other candidates and to demonstrate your strengths and qualifications, try to emphasize the "theme" you used in developing your resume.
During the screening stage of interviews, try to differentiate yourself from other candidates.
The next stage of interviews, selection stage, helps the organization narrow the field a little further. Typically, if you're invited to visit a company, you will talk with several people: a member of the human resources department, one or two potential colleagues, and your potential supervisor. You might face a panel of several interviewers who ask you questions during a single session. By noting how you listen, think, and express yourself, they can decide how likely you are to get along with colleagues. Your best approach during this selection stage of interviews is to show interest in the job, relate your skills and experience to the organization's needs, listen attentively, ask insightful questions, and display enthusiasm.
During the selection stage of interviews, you may interview with several people, perhaps at the same time.
If the interviewers agree that you're a good candidate, you may receive a job offer, either on the spot or a few days later by phone or mail. In other cases, you may be invited back for a final evaluation by a higher-ranking executive who has the authority to make the hiring decision and to decide on your compensation. An underlying objective of the final stage is often to sell you on the advantages of joining the organization.
During the final stage, the interviewer may try to sell you on working for the firm.

COMMON TYPES OF INTERVIEWS
Organizations use various types of interviews to discover as much as possible about you and other applicants. A structured interview is generally used in the screening stage. The employer controls the interview by asking a series of prepared questions in a set order. Working from a checklist, the interviewer asks you each question, staying within an allotted time period. All answers are noted. Although useful for gathering facts, the structured interview is generally regarded as a poor measure of an applicant's personal qualities. Nevertheless, some companies use structured interviews to create uniformity in their hiring process.
A structured interview is controlled by the interviewer to gather facts.
By contrast, the open-ended interview is less formal and unstructured, with a relaxed format. The interviewer poses broad, open-ended questions and encourages you to talk freely. This type of interview is good for bringing out your personality and for testing professional judgment. However, some candidates reveal too much, rambling on about personal or family problems that have nothing to do with their qualifications for employment, their ability to get along with co-workers, or any personal interests that could benefit their performance on the job. So be careful. You need to strike a balance between being friendly and remembering that you're in a business situation.
In an open-ended interview, the recruiter encourages you to speak freely.
Some organizations perform group interviews, meeting with several candidates simultaneously to see how they interact. This type of interview is useful for judging interpersonal skills.
Group interviews help recruiters see how candidates interact with one another.
The most unnerving type of interview is the stress interview, during which you might be asked pointed questions designed to irk or unsettle you, or you might be subjected to long periods of silence, criticisms of your appearance, deliberate interruptions, and abrupt or even hostile reactions by the interviewer. The theory behind this approach is that you'll reveal how well you handle stressful situations, although some• experts find the technique of dubious value-particularly if the stress induced during the interview has no relationship to the job in question. If you find yourself in a stress interview, pause for a few seconds to collect your thoughts, and then continue knowing what the interviewer is up to.
As employers try to cut travel costs, the video interview is becoming more popular. Many large companies use videoconferencing systems to screen middle-management candidates or to interview new recruits at universities. Experts recommend that candidates prepare a bit differently for a video interview than for an in-person meeting:
• Ask for a preliminary phone conversation to establish rapport with the interviewer.
• Arrive early enough to get used to the equipment and setting.
• During the interview, speak clearly but not more slowly than normal.
• Sit straight.
• Look up but not down.
• Keep your mannerisms lively without looking forced or fake.
Many companies now use video interviews at some point during the recruiting process.
Another modern twist is the situational interview or behavioral interview, in which an interviewer may describe a situation and ask, "How would you handle this?" or may ask you to describe how you handled some situation in your past. Many companies have learned that no correlation exists between how well people answer interview questions in a traditional interview and how well they perform on the job. In response, firms such as Kraft Foods, Delta Air Lines, AT&T, and Procter & Gamble rely on situational interviews. Proponents of this approach claim that interviewing is about the job, not about a candidate's five-year goals, weaknesses or strengths, challenging experiences, or greatest accomplishment. The situational interview is a hands-on, at-work meeting between an employer who needs a job done and a worker who must be fully prepared to do the work.
In situational interviews, you're asked to explain how you would handle a specific set of circumstances.
Regardless of the type of interview you may face, a personal interview is vital because your resume can't show whether you're lively and outgoing or subdued and low key, able to take direction or able to t4e charge. Each job requires a different mix of personality traits. The interviewer's task is to find out whether you will be effective on the job.